It's Now or Never
by Cherry Padalecki
Summary: It's the summer after graduation, but nothing goes according to plan. Ariel finally gets a summer romance with the boy she's been crushing on, but finds out he's leaving. Jasmine regrets her decision to break up with her boyfriend and wants him back, but is afraid he's moved on. Meg's stuck working with the one person she hates. And Aurora wakes up from a coma with no memory.
1. Chapter 1

_**PROLOGUE: INTRODUCTION  
**_

* * *

"Who invited _him_?" Meg sneered. She was leaning against the railing of her huge back deck holding a plastic cup in her right hand (she never could make herself like the taste of beer, but since this was her party, she walked around the party with a half full cup for show), with her purple eyes fixed on the guy who had just stepped outside.

"I thought all the seniors were invited since it _is _a graduation party." Meg's friend, Flynn Rider, was standing next to her, waiting to challenge the winner in the next round of beer pong. He was carefully watching as Naveen played against the undefeated champ, Gaston, and was only half paying attention to Meg.

Meg rolled her eyes. "I guess I didn't think he'd actually come. He never goes to parties."

Curiosity got the better of Flynn and he tore his eyes away from the game to see who Meg was talking about. Although he should have known without looking that she was talking about Pitch Black. As far as anyone knew Pitch didn't really have any friends and preferred to be left alone. He had pale skin with golden colored eyes, but his hair was black and he was always dressed in all black. He had a tendency to be rude to other people and liked scaring everyone. Meg thought he was kind of creepy and thought he belonged in the shadows instead of out with other people. But as she watched him pick up a plastic cup from the tiki bar it was clear he thought otherwise.

But since this was the last high school party she was ever going to throw and she would most likely never see him again after that night, Meg decided to let it go and not cause any drama.

"God, I hate him," she muttered.

* * *

"I can't believe high school is over," Ariel said as she and her best friend, Zak, made their way through Meg's house.

"I'm glad it's over," Zak replied.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to start college with you in the fall; but this could be the very last time we see some of these people."

"Good riddance."

Ariel gave her friend a playful shove and giggled. Zak had been quite popular, but didn't actually like any of the popular kids he had pretended to be friends with. Except Ariel, but they had grown up together.

"Lover boy, two o'clock," Zak said.

Ariel's head immediately turned in that direction to see Eric and his best friend Hercules. Ariel had been crushing on Eric since freshman year, but never had the courage to even talk to him. But, Ariel wasn't the only girl in school who liked Eric; he'd had quite a few girlfriends throughout high school, but none of the relationships lasted long. As far as Ariel knew, though, he was single now.

"I can't believe you crushed on him for the last four years and now that we've graduated you still haven't said more than two words to him," Zak said. "That's pretty pathetic, Air."

"I know."

"But, on the bright side; this could be the very last time you ever see him."

* * *

Jasmine followed her boyfriend, Aladdin, out to the driveway as Meg's party started to die down. She stopped in front of his car as he opened the passenger door for her. He waited for her to get in, but she just stared at him.

"Is something wrong?" Aladdin asked.

"This isn't right."

"What isn't?"

"I can't do this to you."

Aladdin's face fell and he slowly closed the door. "What's going on, Jasmine?"

Jasmine nervously bit her lip. Everything inside her wanted her to quit talking and let Aladdin take her home and make out with her in the front seat like every other night.

But this wasn't every other night.

"Aladdin, you're going away to school in a couple months and I'm still gonna be here."

"So?"

"Well, everyone says long distance can't work and-"

Aladdin took Jasmine's hand. "Don't do this."

Jasmine's heart pounded in her chest. _Listen to him! _she scolded herself. _You love him, you want to be with him. STOP! _"Aladdin, you're gonna be at a new school with new people and you shouldn't have to be tied down."

"I'm not tied down." Aladdin studied Jasmine's face and became very solemn. "But, you've already made up your mind, haven't you?"

Jasmine fought back tears. She knew she was doing the right thing. But, that didn't make seeing him hurting any easier. "I'm sorry, Aladdin."

Aladdin stepped closer to her and lowered his voice. "Why are you doing this now? Couldn't you wait until we were at your house instead of at party, in front of everybody."

"I didn't think I'd have the courage to do it then." Jasmine slowly slid her hand out of his. "Odette's gonna give me a ride home."

Aladdin staggered back slightly. "That's it? I don't get a chance to fight; it's just over?"

Jasmine nodded, too choked up to say anything.

Aladdin leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Good bye, Jasmine."

Jasmine watched Aladdin get into his car. As soon as he pulled out of the driveway and was out of sight, she started crying.

* * *

Aurora and her friends, Ramses, Anastasia and Dimitri laughed loudly at one of Dimitri's jokes as they piled into Ramses car. Ramses pulled away from the house and sped off down the street.

"This summer is going to be so kick ass!" Dimitri announced from the backseat. He put his arm around Anastasia. "Nothin' but the beach and the arcade this summer. I can't wait to see my girl in a bikini."

Normally a comment like that would annoy Anastasia and she would roll her eyes and give him a snarky comment in return, but she was a little tipsy from drinking at the party, so she just giggled.

"We're _finally _done with high school!" Aurora cried out as she rolled down her window and let the summer breeze blow through her blonde hair. "Tonight starts the rest of our lives."

Ramses reached over and pulled Aurora into a kiss. The car swerved slightly since he was no longer paying attention to the road. All of a sudden bright light washed over them.

"Ramses! Look out!" Anastasia shouted.

Ramses and Aurora pulled apart. They had drifted into the other lane and were heading straight for another car. Aurora screamed as Ramses jerked the car to the left, trying to avoid the other car. But he reacted to late. A moment later the two cars collided.


	2. Chapter 2

"_Megara!_" The loud demanding voice was immediately followed by banging on the door.

Meg rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head. She wasn't ready to deal with the housekeeper, Carlotta. Though, technically her parents hired Carlotta to be the housekeeper, since they were hardly ever around Carlotta ended up raising Meg and was more like a parent.

The bedroom door swung open. "Megara!"

"What?" Meg groaned.

"What happened here last night? This place is a mess."

"I had my graduation party." Meg threw her blanket off her and rolled over to face Carlotta. "My parents gave me permission."

A sudden sad look came over Carlotta's face. "Well... Get up and get dressed. Some of your friends are passed out downstairs and I want them out of the house." Carlotta didn't say anything else, just left the room, closing the door behind her.

Meg lied in bed for a few moments trying to remember who at the party had actually been her friend. Cale Tucker, but she saw him leave with some chick who basically had a buzz cut, save for two long strands of purple hair in the front. (Meg always thought she was a feminist lesbian, but evidently she was wrong.) Jim Hawkins didn't drink, so he most likely wasn't passed out in her house somewhere. Sinbad definitely was. Her only other real friends was Flynn. He had been drinking a lot, but if he had stayed the night he'd be in bed with her.

Meg frowned and lifted up her blanket slightly to see if she was wearing any clothes. Fortunately she had her regular pajamas on; a crop t-shirt and shorts. Flynn definitely didn't stay the night last night. Still, Carlotta said _friends_, as in plural, and Meg couldn't help wondering who else was still in her house, other than Sinbad. She forced herself to get up and took a quick shower. She didn't bother to blow dry her afterwards, she just slipped on a pair of cutoffs and a tank top and went downstairs.

Meg couldn't help by gape when she reached the last step and saw the state of the living room. She could hardly see the living room floor under all of the beer bottles, plastic cups, mud (she was hoping it was mud) and garbage. A lamp was lying broken on the the end table. A framed picture of her and her parents was lying smashed on the floor. And sprawled out on the couch was former star of the basketball team, John Smith. She continued on into the kitchen where she found former head cheerleader, Esmeralda, passed out on top of the counter. Her shirt was lying on the floor and her stomach had some sort of pink residue on it; most likely from letting the boys do body shots off her. On the other side of the kitchen, through the sliding glass doors, Meg could see Gaston-the former quarterback- passed out on the beer pong table on the deck. It was funny to Meg to see the three most popular kids in school who, just a few days before, had been important to everybody, but were now left behind.

Meg turned and continued to the basement, where she knew she'd find Sinbad asleep on the leather couch in the game room. The game room- which consisted of the couch, a small bar, a pool table, dartboard, air hockey table and a pinball machine- had been her father's idea. He wanted to have a place to escape and be alone but, after it was built, he was too busy to ever use it and it became the most popular place to hang out at Meg's parties.

It was dark in the basement and Meg walked carefully towards the game room. She felt around for the light switch, but was having trouble finding it. Suddenly, somebody grabbed her from behind. Panicked, Meg tried to scream, but a hand quickly clamped over her mouth. She struggled to get away, but couldn't. Finally, he started laughing and let her go. Meg flicked on the light and spun around. She was half surprised to see Pitch standing in the doorway with a cocky grin. She wasn't surprised that he had been the one to scare her, since that's what he always did; however she _was _surprised to see that he was still in her house.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Meg hissed.

Pitch shrugged as he walked into the room. He moved gracefully as if he was gliding. "I had a little too much to drink last night and I guess I passed out."

"Well, you're awake now, so leave."

Pitch shrugged again and went upstairs.

"Ass," Meg muttered, walking over to Sinbad. She started shaking him. "Sinbad!"

Sinbad smiled in his sleep. "Who's bad?" he murmured. "_Sin_bad."

Meg rolled her eyes. "Oh God." She spotted a half full cup of beer on the floor beside the couch. She picked it up and dumped it on his head.

Sinbad woke with a jolt and glared at Meg. "What the hell!"

"It's morning; get out." Meg set the cup down. "And take John, Esmeralda and Gaston with you."

Sinbad groaned as he stood up. "Fine."

Meg followed Sinbad upstairs and as he and left with everyone else, Meg went into the kitchen to get some breakfast. It was only then that she remembered the cook, James, had the day off to celebrate his daughter, Tiana's birthday. Not knowing how to cook anything, Meg opted for cereal. When she went to get the milk out of the fridge, she noticed a note stuck to the outside of the fridge door. She grabbed it and read it out loud.

"Dear Meg," it began. "Your father and I have decided to spend some time in our L.A. home. Have fun this summer. Mom."

Meg crumpled up the note and threw it on the counter. Just then Carlotta came into the kitchen, carrying a large garbage bag. "I see you got their note."

Meg nodded as she retrieved the milk. "Looks like they're spending the summer in L.A."

Carlotta gave Meg another sad look. "Oh, dear. Meg, they're not just spending the summer there. They don't have any plans on coming back here."

"They left me? How could they do that? What am I supposed to do now?"

"They still own the house, but they said it's yours now."

"Like that makes it okay!" Meg snapped.

"I'm sorry, dear." Carlotta smiled at her, then turned and left the kitchen.

This was so like her parents, to just abandon her. They probably wished they could have done it sooner. Meg let out a small growl of anger and threw her cereal bowl against the wall. She watched it shatter against the wall. As she was about to storm out of the room, she saw Pitch standing in the doorway.

"How much of that did you hear?" Meg demanded.

"All of it."


	3. Chapter 3

"Neither."

"No. You have to pick one." Ariel took a sip of her smoothie. She and Zak worked as lifeguards part-time at the beach and were now both on break.

"No I don't." Zak took a hug bite of his hot dog, getting mustard on face.

Ariel handed him a napkin. "Yes you do; it's in the rules."

Zak made a face at her. "Fine. If I _had _pick to go on a date with either Ryan Reynolds or Ryan Gosling I guess I would choose... Reynolds."

Ariel pretended to give him a shocked look. "You would go on a date with Ryan Reynolds? Why, Zak Young, I had no idea you were gay. You think you know a guy..."

Zak frowned at her and threw his napkin at her. "Shut up!"

Ariel giggled. She picked up the napkin by the corner, careful not to touch the mustard, and tossed it onto her tray. "But, ya know, if you were... gay, I mean- I wouldn't care."

Zak raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not."

"I'm just sayin', you haven't had a girlfriend since that Crysta chick sophomore year..."

"What's your point?"

Ariel took another sip of her smoothie, biding time while she thought of how to respond to that. "Maybe, this summer you could have, like, a Sarah Dessen romance."

"Who the hell is Sarah Dessen?"

Ariel frowned at him. "Only my favorite author. She writes young adult novels about girls finding themselves and super awesome and, not to mention, hot boys."

"Okay, well I'm not a girl, nor am I interested in a summer romance. Go have your own Sarah Dessen romance."

"Yeah. Right. With who?"

"Eric."

Ariel had to refrain from laughing out loud. "That's not gonna happen. He's never even noticed me."

"So, make him notice you."

"How?"

Zak nodded towards the bulletin board next to the concession stand. On it were a bunch of flyers for various events; but the largest one in the center was a Now Hiring ad to work the Summer Carnival that was held every summer. It was usually the middle of June to kick off the end of school and the start of summer. Eric's family was one of the wealthiest families in town and they were one of the carnival's sponsors every year, so Eric worked the carnival every summer.

Ariel turned back to Zak. "Zak, you and I go to the carnival every summer and he never talks to me."

"And _you_ don't talk to him. I suggest this year you actually work the carnival with him."

Ariel tilted her head to the side. "That's actually not a bad idea. But, I need you there, too."

"What for?"

Ariel bit her lip. "I don't know... Moral support?"

"That's probably not gonna happen."

"Oh, come on, Zak! It'll be fun. And, hey, maybe you'll find some cute girl and we can both have summer romances. Whataya say?"

"I say no."

Ariel rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward. "Tell you what; if you work the carnival with me _and _actually attempt to have a summer romance, I'll get the matching friends' tattoo with you at the end of the summer."

"Are you serious?"

Ariel nodded and held out her hand, not bothering to tell him that she had planned to get the tattoo with him anyway. "Yes I am. Deal?"

"Deal."

* * *

They were everywhere. Every time Jasmine turned her head she saw another young couple enjoying their summer together. It was bad enough that Jasmine didn't want to break up with Aladdin in the first place and was already regretting the decision; the universe didn't have to rub her face in everyone else's happiness on top of it.

"Party this Saturday night!" Jack Frost, a boy from Jasmine's class, thrust a flyer into Jasmine's hands as he hurried passed them.

Jasmine glanced down at the bright green flyer. The lifeguards were throwing a bonfire party; the first of many. Parties on the beach were common during the summer.

"How exciting!" Odette grabbed the flyer from Jasmine. "Our first beach party as non-high schoolers."

"I'm not going."

"Yes you are," Odette stated, not looking up from the flyer.

"No, I'm-"

Odette looked up at her sharply, cutting her off. "You have _got _to stop pining over Aladdin. I know that's easier said than done; but it's never gonna happen with you moping around all the time. You need to enjoy your summer, Jasmine." She held up the flyer. "Starting with this party."

"You're right."

"Of course I am."

The girls found a spot on the each and unrolled their blanket. Once they were settled, they applied some suntan lotion and lied down. Jasmine closed her eyes and tried to focus only on the warmth of the sun. It had only been two days since she broke up with Aladdin and she had been an emotional wreck the whole time. It felt good to finally relax and just enjoy hanging out with her best friend.

"I think this summer's fling is gonna be John Rolfe," Odette said.

Jasmine turned her head to look at her friend. Odette still had her eyes closed. "What happened with Derek? I thought you were gonna try to get back with him."

"I was going to, but that was before you broke up with Aladdin. What kind of message would I be sending if I told you stop thinking about your ex while at the same time I'm trying to get back with mine?" Odette shrugged. "Besides, there's no guarantee Derek would even want me back. No point in chasing a boy all summer who doesn't want me, when John Rolfe is a sure-thing."

"Hey, ladies."

Jasmine propped herself up on her elbows to see who had come up to them. A slight feeling of dread came over her when she saw Aladdin's best friend, Flynn Rider. Aladdin and Flynn had been best friends since grade school and since Jasmine had dated Aladdin for three years, she became good friends with him as well. She never really gave much thought to what would happen to their friendship after they broke up. She guessed they would just stop being friends.

Odette seemed to have the same thought. "What are you doing here, Rider? I thought you were on Team Aladdin."

"I'm not on anyone's team. Friendships have nothing to do with relationships," Flynn said.

"Sure they do," Odette said. "If your friend goes through a break up, it's not right for you to remain friends with their ex."

"Well, Flynn and I have been good friends for three years; it wouldn't be fair to terminate our friendship over something that had nothing to do with _us,_" Jasmine said.

Now Odette opened her eyes and looked at Jasmine like she was crazy. She obviously had a lot to say on this subject, but thankfully she didn't say any of it. "Whatever. I'm gonna go get a water."

Jasmine watched Odette walk away and waited until she was out of ear shot before turning her attention back to Flynn. "Sorry about that."

Flynn shrugged. "It's cool; I see her point."

Jasmine slowly nodded. "So, um, Flynn... how is Aladdin doing?"

"Sorry, Jazz, I'm not getting in the middle of this."

"Right. Of course. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. It's just that I promised Aladdin I wouldn't say anything."

"I understand."

Flynn stepped closer to Jasmine and crouched down in front of her. "However, if I _were _allowed to say something, I would say that he's going to the bonfire party this weekend and he's been very anti-social so there's a good chance, if you were there, you'd find him by himself. And he'd be free to talk or, ya know, whatever."


	4. Chapter 4

As Carlotta left for the night, Sinbad showed up at Meg's house. "You ready?" he asked.

"Ready for what?" Meg stepped away from the doorway to let Sinbad in."

"The bonfire."

"I almost forgot. Let me just change real quick." Meg hurried up to her room, undressing on her way. She threw her clothes on the bed, then flung open her closet doors. After scanning her clothes for a moment, she decided on a pair of ripped jeans, a brown midriff halter top that showed off her cleavage and brown strappy sandals. When she turned to leave, she found Sinbad standing in the doorway of her room. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough." Sinbad winked at her.

Meg rolled her eyes. "Let's just go."

Meg followed Sinbad back downstairs and outside. She locked the front door, then walked over to where Sinbad had parked his motorcycle. He turned it on as she straddled it behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and he sped down her roundabout driveway and took off towards the beach. Sinbad weaved in and out of traffic as they passed the boardwalk. When Meg had gone there earlier that day to sign up to work the carnival, the boardwalk was all but deserted; now it was crowded, bright and full of life.

It had been couple days since she found out her parents had left her and she had managed to calm down enough to call her mom and talk about it, but all her mom wanted to talk about was the stupid carnival. Meg's parents were the biggest sponsors of the carnival and Meg was forced to work it every year. Meg vowed that this year would be her last, though.

Sinbad pulled into the parking lot for the beach. After he parked, Meg reached into his small saddlebag and took out the hairbrush he kept in there. Sinbad often used his motorcycle to pick up girls and tried to be accommodating by keeping a hairbrush on hand so they could fix their hair. Meg ripped out the stray blonde hairs from his last date and quickly ran the brush through her hair.

They walked onto the beach and saw it was already crowded. Everyone was spread out sporadically across the beach; some were swimming, some were gathered around the bonfire and the rest were broken off into various small groups, talking and drinking or making out.

"Hey, Meg." Hercules, one of the former star athletes from school, walked up to Meg.

"Not tonight, Hercules." Meg had dated him briefly during the first semester of senior year. But, when she found out her parents loved him, she broke up with him. Hercules, however, was still into her and was adamant about trying to get her back. Hercules was a nice guy and Meg didn't mind having him around as a friend, but she had no interest in doing anything that would please her parents.

Meg walked away from him and looked around for any of her friends. She saw Flynn by the bonfire, but he was talking to Jasmine. Jasmine started dating Flynn's best friend sophomore year and she and Flynn became friends as a result of it, but Meg couldn't stand Jasmine. Jasmine was the prom queen that everyone fawned over, but Meg thought she was stuck up. She had even heard that Jasmine broke up with Aladdin just so she could be single over the summer.

Meg found Jim sitting by himself by the water and started towards him. As she neared him, though, movement in the shadows caught her eye and she saw Pitch talking to another one of Meg's exes, Hades. She immediately made a bee-line towards them.

"Hey, babe," Hades greeted her as he slapped her butt.

"Go to hell, Hades!" Meg snapped. "I need to speak to Pitch alone."

Hades shrugged and walked away. Pitch looked down at Meg and it was then that she noticed he had gold eyes. She was momentarily entranced by them, but quickly recovered.

"I wanted to talk to you about the other day," she said. "I don't want you tellin' anyone what you heard about my parents."

"Do I look like I gossip?" Pitch asked.

"I don't know anything about you," Meg replied.

"I have better things to do than talk about your pathetic situation with your parents." Pitch smashed the plastic cup he had been holding and dropped in the sand before walking away.

Meg glared at his back. "Jerk," she muttered. She turned on her heel and headed back towards Jim. She plopped down next to him.

It wasn't until a moment later that she realized Jim was no longer alone. He was actually making out with another boy. They quickly pulled apart when they heard Meg join.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Meg mumbled.

"It's fine," Jim said. "Meg, you remember Thomas."

Meg nodded, though she actually didn't. She vaguely recognized his face, perhaps from one of her classes, but she was fairly certain she had never known his name. And she definitely didn't know Jim was hooking up with him.

"I'll leave you guys alone," Meg finally managed to say. She got up and walked away, only looking back once. To say she was shocked, was a slight understatement. She had no idea that Jim was gay. She didn't care, of course, but she was surprised he never said anything about it. The two of them had been friends since kindergarten.

Meg was so distracted, that she didn't see Hercules until she walked right into him. She looked up at him and he gave her a friendly smile. "What the hell..." she muttered.

She grabbed his hand and led him away from everyone else. Before Hercules could react, they were sitting on the sand and Meg was straddling him.

"What's come over you?" Hercules asked as Meg kissed him.

"Don't read too much into this," Meg told him. "It's just been a long week."


End file.
